Chad Wackerman is a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, jazz fusion

Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 and rock

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 drummer

Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

; arguably best known in the United States for his work as a drummer and percussionist in Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

's band. However, he has worked as a band member, session musician

Session musician

Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

, sideman

Sideman

A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...

, and bandleader

Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....

 of his own jazz trio.

Musical career

Chad cheeesse Wackerman was raised in Seal Beach, California

Seal Beach, California

-Neighborhoods:Seal Beach encompasses the Leisure World retirement gated community with roughly 9,000 residents. This was the first major planned retirement community of its type in the U.S...

, in a family immersed in music. His father, a drummer, is an award-winning music teacher who has taught at both high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 and middle school

Middle school

Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

 levels with a specialization in jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

. Chad and his brothers, John, and Brooks Wackerman

Brooks Wackerman

Brooks Wackerman is the current drummer for the American punk band Bad Religion and the younger brother of Chad Wackerman, formerly a member of Frank Zappa's band.-Career:...

 are all proficient drummers and multi-instrumentalist

Multi-instrumentalist

A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...

s. John recorded an album titled Drum Duets Vol.1.

Wackerman joined the Bill Watrous

Bill Watrous

William Russell Watrous III is a jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known by casual fans of jazz music for his rendition of Sammy Nestico's arrangement of the Johnny Mandel ballad "A Time for Love," which he recorded on a 1993 album of the same name...

 band in 1978 and later went on to work with Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

 for seven years, from 1981 to 1988. Gaining and keeping a place in Zappa's band was not easy; Zappa demanded high musical standards and imposed exacting discipline in rehearsal and on tour. The auditions for his band were grueling, according to Steve Vai

Steve Vai

Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....

 and Wackerman himself.
Two pieces of music, "Mo and Herb's vacation", and "The Black Page

The Black Page

"The Black Page" is a piece by American composer Frank Zappa known for being extraordinarily difficult to play. Originally written for the drum kit and melodic percussion, the piece was later rearranged in several versions, including a disco and a so-called New Age version.Drummer Terry Bozzio said...

" were considered exceptionally difficult. Only three drummers throughout Zappa's career were able to play them successfully: Wackerman, Terry Bozzio

Terry Bozzio

Terry John Bozzio is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons and Frank Zappa.-Biography:Terry Bozzio was born December 27, 1950 in San Francisco, California. He started at age 6 playing makeshift drum sets. At the age of 13 he saw The Beatles premier performance on The Ed...

, and Vinnie Colaiuta

Vinnie Colaiuta

Vincent Colaiuta is an American drummer based in Los Angeles. Originally from Republic, Pennsylvania, he began playing drums as a child and received his first full drum kit from his parents at the age of 14...

.

Sideman and session musician

In 1983, he toured, but did not record, with Australian rock act Men at Work

Men at Work

Men at Work are an Australian rock band who achieved international success in the 1980s. They are the only Australian artists to have a simultaneous #1 album and #1 single in the United States . They achieved the same distinction of a simultaneous #1 album and #1 single in the United Kingdom...

.
Wackerman played on the One Voice

One Voice

One Voice is the sixth studio album by singer and songwriter Barry Manilow. The album was recorded at United Western Studios and Allen Zentz Recording in Hollywood. The album was a signature of a minor decline in Manilow's success. It reached double platinum, not triple platinum, as his past six...

album and video with Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

. He has also recorded albums and toured with artists such as Allan Holdsworth

Allan Holdsworth

Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...

, Steve Vai

Steve Vai

Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....

, Andy Summers

Andy Summers

Andy Summers is an English guitarist born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. Best known as the guitarist for rock band The Police, he has also recorded twelve solo albums, collaborated with many other artists, toured extensively under his own name, published several books, and composed...

, Ed Mann

Ed Mann

Ed Mann has been "a drummer and piano dabbler since childhood", best known for his mallet percusion recorded and live work with Frank Zappa from 1977 to the end of Zappa's career.- Career :...

, Albert Lee

Albert Lee

Albert William Lee, born 21 December 1943 in Leominster, Herefordshire, England, is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked both in the studio and on tour with some of the most famous musicians which stretch through a very wide of genres...

, Colin Hay

Colin Hay

Colin James Hay is a Scottish-Australian musician, who made his mark during the 1980s as lead vocalist of the Australian band Men at Work, and later as a solo artist.- Early life and Men at Work :...

, Dweezil Zappa

Dweezil Zappa

Dweezil Zappa is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor.-Early life:Zappa was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of musician Frank Zappa and Adelaide Gail Sloatman, who worked in business. He is the second of four siblings: his older sister, Moon, younger sister Diva and younger...

 and Tom Grant

Tom Grant (jazz musician)

Tom Grant is an American contemporary jazz/jazz fusion pianist and vocalist.- Biography :Tom Grant was born in Portland, Oregon to a musical family – his father was a tap dancer who owned a record store in Portland, and his brother was an avant-garde jazz pianist. At a young age, Grant learned to...

. Chad was also the drummer for the house band

House band

For the British band that existed from 1984-2001, see The House BandA house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to...

 on the first Dennis Miller

Dennis Miller

Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, actor, sports commentator, and television and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references...

 late night talk show

Talk show

A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....

.

Chad has also toured with James Taylor

James Taylor

James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....

, best friends Mark Linn-Baker

Mark Linn-Baker

Mark Linn-Baker is an American actor and director famous for his role as Larry Appleton on the television sitcom Perfect Strangers.-Early life and career:...

 and Larry Sweeney

Larry Sweeney

Alexander K. Whybrow was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by his ring name Larry Sweeney...

, John Patitucci

John Patitucci

John Patitucci is an American Grammy-winning jazz double bass and jazz fusion electric bass player.-Biography:Patitucci is of Italian descent and was born in Brooklyn, New York, where he began playing the electric bass at age ten, composing and performing at age 12, as well as the acoustic bass at...

 and Joe Sample

Joe Sample

Joseph Leslie "Joe" Sample is an American pianist, keyboard player and composer.He is one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 .- Biography :Sample began playing the piano...

, as well as fellow Zappa drummer Terry Bozzio in a series of all-percussion concerts. Chad lived in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 for ten years between 1995 and 2005. Due to changes in the music scene in Australia and an increase in gigs in the United States, Chad decided to move back to California in July, 2005.

Chad Wackerman Trio

The current Chad Wackerman Trio consists of Chad Wackerman (drums), Doug Lunn (bass), and Mike Miller (guitar).

Their DVD is available on DW/DrumChannel from April 2010.

Chad's own records include guitar contributions from Allan Holdsworth

Allan Holdsworth

Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...

.

Solo discography

Solo Artist

• Forty Reasons (1991)
• The View (1993)
• Scream (2000)
• Legs Eleven (2004)

Multimedia

• "Tell Me" with Allan Holdsworth
• With Terry Bozzio at the Vic Theater in Chicago

External links

• Official site
• Yamaha Australia page
• Drummerworld page
• [ Allmusic]